Austin….what an interesting town. First off, it is much bigger than we expected. It is quite a large city (almost a million people) and it has so many attractions, music venues, and restaurants, it is a little overwhelming at first.

We checked into our clean but very, very dated condo on Lake Travis which is in Largo Vista, Texas, about 40 minutes outside of Austin. The place is literally overrun with deer and they actually sell you corn to feed them. They will literally eat out of your hand. They will kind of swarm you, too!

Tired from the drive, we headed to the closest restaurant to us,  Haven. We asked for a table on the patio and it took forever for the hostess to put 2 glasses and some silverware on the table. The food was actually really good but the service was tortuously slow. It was over an hour from when we sat until we got our entrée and it was not that crowded. There was a live band and the lead singer did a pretty good imitation of Janis Joplin but it was certainly not dinner music. So glad we were on the porch!

Saturday we headed to Franklin’s Barbecue for lunch which was listed in my cooking Light magazine as being picked as one of the best 5 barbecue places in the WORLD! We got there about 1:30 on Saturday and jumped in line only to discover that the wait was about 90 minutes and they were already out of several things. So we decided we would visit on a weekday and headed to Easy Tiger. This is a cool little bar that makes their own sausages and pretzel buns. I had a lamb sausage with sour cherries and mustard topping and Buzz had a garlic beef sausage. Both were excellent though not especially warm. We had to laugh because they had Dog Fish Head (from Delaware) and Left Hand (which is from the Boulder area.) It is getting to be a smaller and smaller world…at least as far as good beer is concerned!

We walked up and down 6th street which is famous for its bar scene and made a quick stop in Coyote Ugly. It was very hot! I wanted to escape the snow and cold but this was ridiculous. The real feel was 101! I was so hot. We sat in the air conditioned lobby of a gorgeous old hotel for a few minutes to revive then we headed back to the condo to change into cooler clothes. I knew there was a cold front moving in and I was counting the minutes. We ended up eating spaghetti at home and headed into Austin for a 10:00pm show at Antone’s. Soul Man Sam and his SMS Band were playing and they were quite good. They covered funk and rock, James brown and B.B. King, etc. Afterwards, around 12:30 AM, we cruised over to VooDoo Doughnuts which was on 6^th Street where we had walked this afternoon. The difference was literally night and day. The place was absolutely bonkers. The street was jam-packed with people. I have never seen so many bachelorette parties all decked out in hats and bunny tails, etc. The music pouring out of the various bars competed for your attention. It came very close to Khaosan Road in Thailand which was a zoo. I guess we are too old for this stuff. We didn’t want to wait in the very long line at the donut shop so we got a Frito Pie from a street vendor and watched people for a few minutes then headed home for bed. (Yes, we are old and boring!)

On the drive home, the storm that threatened all day broke and literally cut the temperature in half. Sunday morning the temperature was down to 55 degrees. So much better! It is not supposed to be as hot as yesterday for the rest of the week.

Stubb’s BBQ Gospel Brunch was our destination this Sunday morning. It was fabulous. The brisket was some of the most tender and tasty we have ever had. The fried catfish required two helpings for quality control! The Gospel group was very good and it was an overall good time.

On to San Antonio! It is only a couple hours drive so we decided to head there and spend the night to check out the Riverwalk and the Alamo.

Wow…the Riverwalk is amazing! We took the Taxi boat back and forth so saw every inch of the walk, twice, actually 3 times. It is so nice…fountains and artworks, foot bridges that were decorated with plants and lighting, interstate bridges with huge sunfish hanging from them. The walk is a beautiful stone path that follows the San Antonio River for 15 miles! It is peppered with restaurants and taverns and art museums and river stages. The people of San Antonio probably don’t hang out here much; it is probably mostly tourists but what a gem this city has. There were some very forward thinking people in the 30’s and 40’s.

We headed over to Fiesta which is a week long celebration that includes a street parade and a boat parade. The festival area was filled with shops and food and drink vendors and music…and I mean filled. It was too crowded to really see anything and we were still full from the great gospel brunch spread so we did not spend much time there.

We basically spent our whole time in San Antonio on the Riverwalk, walking and taxiing. We treated ourselves (actually our credit card points treated us) to a stay at a lovely hotel right on Riverwalk, Hotel Contessa.

Monday morning was breakfast burritos by the river’s edge and a tour of The Alamo. Once again, not what I expected. I thought it would be outside of town all by itself. It is smack dab in the middle of downtown. Guess that is what 250 years of development will do!

Heading back to Austin this afternoon for a few more days of southern charm.